Toronto: 49% of Torontonians Polled Support Photo-Radar

Photo radar got its start with Bob Rae’s NDP government in August 1994. It met its end 11 months later, after Mike Harris – who had campaigned with a promise to scrap the program – was elected.

Ontario’s Queens Park (above). Currently, Ontario laws don’t allow photo-radar. In March, 2015 Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca said that the Province wasn’t interested in bringing photo-radar back in Ontario, in response to hearing that York Region wanted to bring it back in that Region.

Mayor John Tory is interested in opening up a discussion on bringing photo radar to Toronto, and it seems nearly half of Torontonians are also in favour of it, according to an exclusive poll conducted for CityNews by Forum Research.

In a random sampling of 507 Torontonians, 49 per cent approve of photo radar, 34 per cent disapprove of it and 17 per cent have no opinion.

“Photo radar has become more acceptable in the past three years, and Torontonians now are equally likely to see it as a means of raising money and a way of guaranteeing safety. It appears they approve of both goals,” said the president and founder of Forum Research, Lorne Bozinoff.

Tory has said he’s open to discussing photo radar in school zones as a way to not only improve public safety, but address a 2016 police budget that ballooned past a billion dollars for the first time ever.

Torontonians see major intersections only as the most important place to site photo radar equipment (26 per cent) in a virual tie with school zones (24 per cent).

However, nearly equal proportions of Torontonians think photo radar is a revenue raising tool (37 per cent) or a safety measure (39 per cent).

Results are based on the total sample of 507 and are considered accurate plus-or-minus five per cent, 19 times out of 20.

A Burlington OPP officer works in a photo radar van during the short-lived introduction.